Olimpia completed its sensational EuroLeague season with another win, a 83-73 triumph over CSKA Moscow in the 3rd place game. It was a platonic game, mostly meaningless, but Olimpia took it seriously, overcame Malcolm Delaney and Gigi Datome’s absences, foul troubles, and played a brilliant game. Olimpia took the lead early in the second quarter, then stayed there through the end, made 11 threes as a team, won the rebounding battle, had a lot from a lot of players. With Delaney out, Michael Roll played as a point-guard and responded once again, and so did Riccardo Moraschini, who made two quick threes as soon as he entered the game. Sergio Rodriguez added 14 points and six assist, Kyle Hines had three blocks, became the all-time leading Final Four shot-blocker, and made the big plays at the end. Earlier, it was Kaleb Tarczewski’s turn to work relentessly inside. And finally, Vlado Micov completed a great weekend adding 14 points. He set the tone early and made the crucial three that sealed the game late. Olimpia won its 25th game of the season, completing a year for the ages, because it made the playoffs after seven years, the Final Four after 29, lost the semifinal on a last second shot and finished the job by playing extremely well the last game in Cologne.

“I’m extremely happy, extremely proud of what these guys did – Coach Ettore Messina said at the end -. It’s been a really impressive EuroLeague season. Forty-one games and at the end we are third. We can cry a little bit about a 2-point loss in the semifinal, but I am extremely happy and proud and it’s something we can build on. It doesn’t mean we’ll be back for sure, but at least we will compete for sure. The good thing is these guys did it with class and personality. Nothing happened by accident. They behaved very well on every court in Europe. We got the respect and that’s very important.”